Monday, August 20, 2007

Excited!

Archery. The word sounds quite interesting the first time it knocked my eardrum. I never thought that one day I’ll be getting involved with it. During this third year of study, most of students in IIUM Kuantan campus (except medical and dental students) have to join any one of the skill-based activities offered by the university. It’s good since the academic life is getting tougher and harder at this stage. So the outdoor activity becomes a mean to release the burden of stressful mind. Volleyball, tennis, netball, basketball, recreation, and archery are to name a few.

Aha, archery! I really adore this one since it is one of the sports recommended by Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. besides horse-riding and swimming. There is no horse to be rode here and there is no swimming pool in the campus to swim in (there's a lake here..but only for fish to swim). The only one accessible is archery because the equipments are there to use though the numbers are very limited and the coach is there ready to teach. So, here I am with my classmates, a male and 13 females (girls' power!), ready to learn this skilful activity.

From the first practical session, I came to know that physical strength is very important for an archer especially the arm since it is most used-limb. However, physical strength alone is not enough because an archer also needs mental strength which for me it is far more important than the physical strength. You’ve got a bonus if you can control your mind and keep it in focus before, during and after you release an arrow. The focus for the aim will help you to reach the target.

To complement physical and mental strength, archers need to have the technical and tactical strength too. Technicality is vital when it comes to the archery equipments while tactics are still needed even though the target is stationary since there are many other things which can stray the arrow pathway. Combining these four strengths, one already has a chance to get the highest point in any competition provided that they are very skilful.

A question arises here. How to be skilful? My coach said, “Do the things repeatedly and correctly. Archery is nothing but a repetition of the same action” Yup, it’s absolutely true. When you experience something at the first time, you’ll surely know how to face it the next time. What more if you keep facing the thing for the umpteenth of times. Indeed, experience is the best teacher!